“When I was young, I often heard my Imperial Grandfather talk about General Zhengnan. He said that the General was young but very accomplished, and was a rare talent, one of the great generals of our Yu Dynasty,” Xiao Chengjun said, smiling as he spoke. He walked to his Consort’s side. “Zhuoyu’s marriage to me has shortchanged him greatly, but the wishes of our parents cannot be disrespected. I hope Uncle and Aunt will understand and forgive me.”
The Pingjiang Hou furen hurriedly bowed to return the Crown Prince’s greeting. “It is an incomparable honour to be able to wed into the Imperial family. The Crown Prince is too gracious – I dare not agree with what the Crown Prince has said,” she said.
“Yes indeed, Dianxia is too courteous,” the Second Uncle said, bowing and clasping his fists together. “We are extremely grateful to Dianxia for taking care of our nephew.”
The Crown Prince’s expression was full of self-deprecation, and Lou Jing wasn’t too happy about that. He stepped forward and pulled on his husband’s sleeve. “I’m not shortchanged at all – Dianxia, how can you say that?” he asked.
Xiao Chengjun looked at his Consort who was staring at him with puppy dog eyes, then patted his hand comfortingly.
Lou Jing’s First Aunt and Second Uncle were both gratified when they saw how well Lou Jing got along with Xiao Chengjun. His marriage was water under the bridge by this point, and if he could be happy being the Crown Prince’s spouse, that was the best they could hope for. Also, they both hadn’t expected this uncelebrated Crown Prince to be this caring and virtuous. This could already be considered a real fortune amongst fortunes.
The four sat down to drink tea and chat with each other. The atmosphere gradually grew warm and cozy. The more the Pingjiang Hou furen looked at this extraordinarily handsome Crown Prince, the more she liked him. He was not only warm and polite to his elders, but was also very patient with Lou Jing. If her own daughter had married this kind of man, she would be so happy that she’d even laugh out loud in her sleep. The only thing was that Lou Jing was a man, and the Anguo Gong’s heir, so it was a pity that he had become a male wife.
“Furen, Second Master, the Anguo Gong has sent some gifts over. It seems that the Anguo Gong himself will also arrive very shortly,” a servant said, rushing in anxiously to report.
“Hmph! Now he observes these courtesies,” Xu Che sniffed disdainfully.
“Er jiu…” the First Aunt said in a cautionary tone. She turned and looked meaningfully at Lou Jing and Xiao Chengjun. With Xu Che’s temperament, he would definitely butt heads with the Anguo Gong, and it wasn’t good for these two to see that.
Lou Jing naturally understood what his First Aunt wanted. He exchanged a look with the Crown Prince, and they both stood up. “My father-in-law has not seen First Aunt and Second Uncle for many years, and if I’m here, I’m afraid Father-in-law will not be able to speak comfortably,” Xiao Chengjun said.
“Father gets angry the moment he sees me, so I’ll bring the Crown Prince to walk around the garden. I’ll come back in a bit to talk to Second Uncle and First Aunt,” Lou Jing said cheerily, pulling his Crown Prince out of the main hall.
Xu Che didn’t stop them. He only clasped his fists together apologetically at the Crown Prince.
The Pingjiang Hou Mansion wasn’t very large. Lou Jing walked once around the covered corridors outside the mansion with his husband, then turned back to hide under the windows outside the back of the main hall.
“If Uncle and the rest see us eavesdropping, won’t it be bad?” Xiao Chengjun asked, looking helplessly at his Consort, who was all ears at this very moment. He and Lou Jing seemed to be engaging in all sorts of crooked activities lately – flipping over walls, stealing into nunneries, and now secretly listening in on their elders’ conversation.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Brother-in-law, Lou Jing’s mother is not around any more, and you really should have discussed Zhuoyu’s marriage with us first,” the Pingjiang Hou furen’s voice was full of dissatisfaction. Ordinarily, when the principal wife passed on, the legitimate heir’s marriage should have been discussed with the brothers of the principal wife.
“You were all in faraway Lingnan, and the Emperor passed the edict very quickly. There wasn’t much I could do either,” the Anguo Gong, Lou Jianyu said. He didn’t seem to think that there was anything wrong with what he did at all.
“Zhuoyu is the heir recognised by the Crown! When the Emperor discussed this with you, you should have said that he’s the legitimate heir, and that you can’t marry him off this way!” Xu Che said, his voice brimming with barely suppressed fury.
“Nothing in the law says that the legitimate heir cannot be married off to the Crown Prince,” Lou Jianyu muttered, his head down. In front of his brothers-in-law, he always seemed to shrink a bit in stature and presence. “The Emperor bestowed this marriage. You can’t expect me to defy the Emperor’s decree?”
“You still dare to argue?!” Xu Che grabbed Lou Jianyu’s collar and raised a fist. “It’s not like there was no one else other than Zhuoyu who was qualified to marry the Crown Prince. There were our Lingnan Hou legitimate grandsons and Guangcheng Bo’s second son! None of these other candidates were heirs to peerages! If you weren’t in a hurry to offer up your own son, why would the Emperor specifically choose your only legitimate son and heir apparent?”
“Second Brother-in-Law, let’s speak calmly now! No need to use your fists!” Lou Jiang grabbed hold of Xu Che’s hand, giving him a nervous, obsequious smile.
“Er jiu!” the Pingjiang Hou furen exclaimed, hurriedly trying to pull Xu Che back but failing miserably.
It was chaos. Lou Jing draped himself over the Crown Prince’s shoulders, shaking with silent laughter. Xiao Chengjun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry looking at the fellow beside him. He harboured a strong suspicion that his Consort had called his Uncle over from Lingnan just to give his dad a good thrashing.
It was sunset by the time they left the Pingjiang Hou’s Mansion. Lou Jing discussed with his First Aunt about going to the Anguo Gong and asking for his share of the assets, and they decided to do it the very next day.
“Why the rush?” Xiao Chengjun asked, looking at his grinning Consort and sighing inwardly.
“First Aunt manages all the accounts and affairs in the Lingnan Hou family. She has to get back before New Year, so she can’t stay long in the Capital. She can suppress Mdm Wei, and I need to quickly get my share of the assets out now whilst they’re here,” Lou Jing said. He took advantage of the horse carriage’s bumps and jolts to surreptitiously cosy up to the Crown Prince, leaning against his warm body. “After the New Year, Father and his brothers will be out of their mourning period. At that time, the amount of family assets I will get will also be much less.”
Xiao Chengjun pressed his lips together, not saying anything.
“These family assets will also be my dowry, essentially. Where on earth can you find a wife like me, who’s always thinking about what’s beneficial to my husband’s family?” Lou Jing teased, pulling the Crown Prince into a tight hug. He nuzzled at the Crown Prince’s neck.
Xiao Chengjun chuckled. He stroked the head nuzzling all over at his neck and hid the bitter look in his eyes.
The next day, the Crown Prince went to attend Court, and Lou Jing also got up very early. He started flipping energetically through a few thick account books.
These books contained Zhuque Hall’s accounts, his mother’s dowry, the title deeds to properties in Jinzhou, and also the Anguo Gong main residence accounts that his paternal Second Aunt passed to him when he returned to his family home on the third day after the wedding. Lou Jing had passed the entire lot to Le Xian for safekeeping that day.
Lou Jing first walked his husband out the door, then went to Fengyi Palace to pay his morning greetings to the Empress, and told him that he would be returning to the Anguo Gong residence today.
“Why are you going back to your family home all of a sudden?” Ji Zhuo asked, frowning slightly. The Imperial Court had been extremely hostile to the Crown Prince the past two days. What were this Crown Prince Consort’s intentions in returning to the Anguo Gong Mansion at this time?
“My maternal Second Uncle and First Aunt are back from Lingnan,” Lou Jing said. He continued to smile obediently, as if he hadn’t seen the chill in the Empress’ eyes. “Because the wedding was conducted in such a hurry, my mother’s dowry has not been brought into the palace yet. I wanted to ask for all of my mother’s dowry to be given to me whilst my First Aunt is still in the Capital.”
“Hahaha! You’re quite something. You’ve only been married into the Imperial family for half a month, but you already know how to pull money into your husband’s family,” Ji Zhuo laughed, shaking a finger at Lou Jing in a mock accusatory manner. The coldness in his eyes had completely dissipated, and he was now joking warmly with Lou Jing.
“Father Empress, how can you jeer at erchen this way?” Lou Jing said, pretending to be upset.
“Alright, alright, I won’t laugh at you anymore,” Ji Zhuo said, smiling faintly as he shook his head. He instructed his Head Eunuch to go to his storeroom to fetch some gold and jade accessories. “I am a man, and it’s not convenient for the Pingjiang Hou furen to come and visit me. Take these with you.” Ji Zhuo’s act in bestowing gifts on the Pingjiang Hou furen through Lou Jing would send a strong signal that Lou Jing had the Empress as a backer.
Lou Jing immediately knelt in thanks.
The Anguo Gong household had been mired in a dark fog since the day before when Lou Jianyu came back from the Lingnan Hou’s mansion in high dudgeon. His mood didn’t improve even after a night’s sleep. He arose early the next day and paced around in agitation.
“There’s no need to be so frustrated,” Mdm Wei said, laughing coldly as she arranged some things for the afternoon banquet. She glanced at the volatile Anguo Gong, who looked like he was about to burst into flames at any second. “The Shizi is already married into the Imperial family. If the Xu family is unhappy about it, they’ll have to take it up with the Emperor. What are you worrying about, really?”
“What do you know?” Lou Jianyu said snidely, glaring at his second wife. “I don’t know what that bastard said to the Xu family, but Xu Che nearly beat me to death yesterday. I can’t imagine what stunt he’s going to pull today.” As he said this, he pointed at the purple bruise on his chin. Xu Che’s fists were a force to be reckoned with, and he was so angry that he had not held back yesterday. If the Pingjiang Hou furen hadn’t pulled him back, his teeth might have been knocked out.
“Guogong ye!” a servant shouted, rushing in so quickly that he tripped over the threshold. “Third… The Third Old Master is here.”
“Who?!” Lou Jianyu asked, stunned. The Third Old Master was the current patriarch of the Lou clan. That generation of the Lou clan was unfortunately not blessed with long lives, and only the Third Old Master was still around. He didn’t have much dealings with the Anguo Gong household in ordinary times – why did he suddenly decide to show up today of all days?
“Zhuoyu said that there was something important happening at home today, and he specially invited this old bag of bones to witness it,” the Third Old Master said, smiling amiably as he walked into the room. He and the old Anguo Gong were cousins, and even though he had an Yinfeng, he was not bestowed any peerage. All the children and grandchildren in the family still counted on the old Anguo Gong to carry their family’s name in the past.
Lou Jianyu’s heart thudded ominously in his chest. Lou Jing was extremely unlikely to have friendly intentions in calling the Third Old Master over today.
Mdm Wei was also pulling a long face. She had just managed to take over Zhuque Hall’s account books a few days ago – was Lou Jing here to make a fuss about that? She hurriedly pulled Lou Jianyu over to a corner. “Guogong ye, is the Crown Prince Consort intending to split the family assets today?” she whispered.
“Hmph! Split the family assets? I didn’t short him a single cent for his dowry!” Lou Jianyu said, fury rising in his breast. He still had not obtained a satisfactory conclusion in respect of the generational assets in Jinzhou, and if this bastard son of his was still intending to ask for more money from him today, he would make sure he got those generational assets back.
The atmosphere in the Imperial Court today was even more tense than yesterday.
News of the Taishan earthquake had spread like wildfire amongst the ministers. Heaven really seemed to be intent on causing chaos by making such an inauspicious sign appear at this crucial moment!
The expression on Shen Lian’s face could be said to be happy; the issue of the “Imperial ancestral temple” in Qinghe had yet to be thoroughly investigated, and now the Taishan earthquake had conveniently distracted the Emperor. The Chunde Emperor had always been superstitious, and his attention was firmly fixed on the earthquake now. He had no mood to look into the Qinghe River matter any more.
Xiao Chengjun carried himself in a dignified manner, as if he completely didn’t see the furtive looks the ministers shot him. Some of these looks were pitying, and others were jeering.
“Is the Imperial Oracle present?” the Chunde Emperor asked, frowning.
The Imperial Oracle came forward and knelt before the Emperor, cold sweat running down his forehead in rivulets. “Replying to the Emperor’s question, yesterday, the sky was overcast, and it also drizzled a little at night. This minister was unable to read the stars…” he said.
“You good-for-nothing creature! What use are you?” the Chunde Emperor spat, slamming a bamboo scroll down forcefully. “Guards!”
“Your Majesty!” the Imperial Oracle shouted in panic. If he let the Emperor finish his sentence, he would certainly lose his official position, and in the worst case, he might even lose his head. “This minister… this minister knows he is incompetent! However, I know someone who can interpret the Heavenly signs without reading the stars.”
“Who?” the Chunde Emperor asked, his interest immediately piqued.
The Minister of the Left, Zhao Duan, frowned almost imperceptibly, then glanced at the Minister of the Right, Chen Shichang. The latter did not seem surprised by this development at all. Zhao Duan cursed inwardly. This was all part of Chen Shichang’s schemes, and the Crown Prince was very likely to be in grave danger!